Christophe Guillarmé’s S/S 2014 collection: Lady Garage

French designer Christophe Guillarmé premiered his collection at the Renault République during Paris Fashion Week. The spring/summer 2014 collection was inspired by old Hollywood and the post-war “worldly” New York scene.

One characteristic that makes Christophe Guillarmé’s dresses so uniquely identifiable is the variety of materials he uses to create diverse textures within his pieces. The net dress above floated effortlessly down the runway, which brought the garment to life. The dynamic between the top-half being very structured and skin-tight and the bottom-half being freer-flowing made for an interesting contrast.  The cut-outs added the “garage” element and the attitude made this piece a lot younger, though elegant nonetheless.

The golden tint on the above dress denotes pure glamour, and the sleeveless design makes this creation ballerina-like. The precision with which this dress is tailored at the hem puts the spotlight on the model’s figure. This dress is also embroidered in a nude-coloured pattern, which embodies Christophe Guillarmé’s signature style.

The details on this next Christophe Guillarmé dress are exquisite; it structures the frame perfectly. The way the flowers delicately reach over the dress onto the skin gives an airbrushed effect and highlights the metaphor of “you are what you wear”. This Christophe Guillarmé has been tailored to perfection.

Christophe Guillarmé isn’t afraid of using bold colours in his collection and pink was a consistent colour towards the end of the show, boldly yet classically draped in a variety of alterations to create dresses for different purposes. The shape of the dress above is very girly yet stylish. The sheen to this material gives the dress an interesting dimension when photographed and glistened when worn down the runway. The black belt around the waist elongates the legs and the flared dress was very in-style of the 50s. The black embroidery adds an element of edge and makes this piece particularly interesting while keeping in theme of the collection.

Niten Thakor
Photos:  Nicola Gleichauf /Frank Barylko